Sunday, January 30, 2011

Every so often, it seems I hit a bump in the road and progress comes to a grinding halt. Last time that happened, I spent several angst-filled weeks, wailing away on my other blog, going through an elaborate (and ultimately helpful, if tedious and drawn out) problem-solving process to try to figure out (and solve) the problem (ie: my training was boring, and needed some pizzaz.)

This time, I'm just going to cut to the chase: I'm ditching most of New Training Levels from the Weekly Worksheet (for now) as I can't seem to get questions answered in the Yahoo! group, and when I finally have to strike out on my own, I later find out I did it "wrong".

So - for now, until Sue releases her book (and I'm getting the feeling that will be sooner rather than later) I'm going to table New Training Levels in the formal, although I will obviously continue to work informally on the obvious things like sits and downs and stays and such. Once I can get my hands on a copy of the book, New Training Levels will be back on the menu.

Filling the rather substantial void it leaves, will be things related to The Daily Shoot - those things I think will make taking pictures a lot easier.

I will, of course, continue the Trick of the Week, as we are having a great time with that, and if I do something "wrong" we just pick a new trick! :)

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Good question. It doesn't seem like I accomplished much on my list, although I've been having a blast with The Daily Shoot and Trick training.

Training Levels is going nowhere, as I seem to have different ideas to what the terse descriptions mean vs. what Sue meant them to mean, and so I'm left in limbo-land awaiting her book.

I left the Training Levels items on the page, too lazy to rip them off this week, but don't be surprised to see a shake-up in the program next week. Not sure quite what - perhaps just the skills listed (jump over a bar) instead of the Training Levels tag attached to it.

That way, there is no "wrong way", and yet the basic skills will be covered so that I should be able to make good progress once the book comes out.

Perhaps.

Or I might just devote all our time to photography, tricks, and my own curriculum.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

It was a week of discoveries and disappointments. I discovered The Daily Shoot, and have added my attempts to fulfill the assignment at the end of my last four posts (as of Monday 12:01 am) back on BZTraining.

In addition to being a fun challenge for me to figure out how to meet the assignment requirements with dog(s) as my subject, it is rewarding for the dogs (who love posing for the camera as that means cookies), and a boon for training.

No, really. I can't take a picture of them posing if I can't get them to pose, and that's training!

I also (crossing fingers) managed to squeak my trick in under the wire. My fingers are crossed as I haven't actually made the video yet - the job for Monday. However, last night (Saturday) he was being successful, so things look good. I'll go practice again (once I get off the computer) and I can work Monday on it is as well if need be.

Oh, what is it? You'll have to see Tuesday's post on BZTraining to find out!

The disappointment was that I was stupid and didn't print out my 5x5 Quiz, and therefore I didn't do it. I know, that sounds like a really lame excuse, but there it is. (If I was good at this training stuff I wouldn't have to blog about it to stay motivated!)

My other issue is with New Training Levels, which constitutes portion of what I train. I have several times misinterpreted the terse web descriptions (all we have to go on at the moment) and so I'm now basically idling, awaiting the book, as to do anything else seems of dubious value given that I'm having trouble getting my questions answered reliably on the Training Level's Yahoo! group, no doubt due to Sue working 14 hours a day trying to get the book out, so I'm certainly not complaining.

The upshot is that while I'm working on the obvious stuff, I'm not doing much videoing and not really crossing anything off unless I'm darn sure I've done it right.

Finally, the first Family Dog class for Henry was canceled due to a few specks of mist.

(sigh)

At least the forecast looks good for this week!

Enough talk - see this week's list below, followed by a more generic 5x5 sheet that will hopefully prove more useful, if less explanatory.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

As I haven't a clue how long New Training Levels is supposed to take, I've thrown in quite a few Steps just to make sure I'm covered.

Too many? Too few? Haven't a clue. Keep in mind that Henry just turned 5 months old and training a teenager can be a... humbling... experience.

My goal for Zachary is to catch him up to where Henry is. This will be a problem only if I see his weight creeping back up again.

Finally, new for this year, I've added a box for what I should be doing (the "Mom" part.) There isn't anything there that I don't already try to do, but I thought it's good to spell it out (and I was trying to fill
that spot on the page.)